British Colonial Health Care Development and the Persistence of Ethnic Medicine in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore

Abstract

Both Malaysia and Singapore share a common colonial legacy in health care development. Health care in both countries has been characterised by a plural health care system comprising Western and ethnic medicine—Chinese, Malay, Indian and aboriginal medicine. In this paper, the introduction, development and increasing dominance of Western medicine is discussed with the aim of explaining the implications for the persistence of ethnic medicine. This persistence of ethnic medicine can be traced in part to colonial health care development policies. The uneven development of health care services during the colonial period has resulted in a reliance on ethnic medicine which has persisted till today.